IMF Chief Has Little Sympathy For Greece

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund says she has more sympathy for poor African children than Greeks suffering under the country's economic problems and austerity measures.

In an interview published in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper Saturday, Christine Lagarde said "I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger...sharing one chair for three of them. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens."

Lagarde also criticized Greek citizens "who are trying to escape tax," and said the country needs to make more of an effort to solve its economic problems.

Greece's economy is being kept afloat on international loans provided by the European Union and the IMF, along with a harsh austerity package that is deeply unpopular with the country's electorate.